Insights and attitude about PR, journalism and traditional and social media.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Track Record for Predictions for 2013, Part IV

Here are our grades for Part IV of our predictions:

Premature
deathwatch of things that are very much alive. Reporters and bloggers like to write is the
purported death of various, usually popular items, devices or technology. Here’s
a list we predicted would be proclaimed dead, and how accurate we were:

oe-Readers: The Wall St.
Journal, among others declared e-Readers as on the way out. We disagreed, and
feel dedicated e-readers are doing fine, thanks. Grade: B+.

oFlash: It’s probably on
the way out but it’s not dead yet. Grade:
B+.

oPCs: Sales are declining
but businesses continue to rely on PCs. That’s not going to change until tablets
are more on par with PCs in terms of capabilities and performance Meanwhile, Deloitte
says “larger screens and keyboards go a long way
toward explaining the PC’s enduring popularity not only for work-related tasks,
but also for watching videos.” Grade: B+.

oCable TV: More people may
want to be cord-cutters but doing so requires more patience than a lot of
people have. Cable TV subscribers will decline but many will stay as cable continues
to improve the viewing experience on devices other than TV sets. Grade:
B+

o3D TVs and 3D glasses: We said that 3D
glasses for the living room use is dying but 3D TVs are not yet dead but we’re
not sure about the 3D TVs’ future. Grade:
C+.

oBlu-ray machines and
DVDs:
Blu-ray player sales were up 3 percent on Black Friday, according to Home
Media Magazine. That’s pretty good for technology that was written off (by
others) as being dead. Grade: B+.

oRadio: There may be a lot
of alternative apps to traditional radio, but radio continues on. Grade: A.

oLandlines and
cellphones that aren’t smartphones: These are not dead yet, either. Grade: A.

oPress releases: Despite social
media, there’s still a place and a value to press releases. Grade: A.

oCES: No less than star
consumer review David Pogue (formerly of the New York Times) called CES 2013: "Spicing
Up a Ho-Hum Tech Show." Grade:
A+.

oPrivacy: After
leaks and NSA spying (neither of which we predicted), privacy continues to be a
big issue. Grade: A.

oPaper: We’re still
a way from being paperless, nearly 40 years from the time BusinessWeek
published an article claiming we would go paperless. Grade: A.

oSocial media gurus: This was one area that
we felt was ready for the deathwatch, noting “Most of the ones we see claim to
be gurus and to be able to help you generate thousands of followers – yet,
anecdotally, many so-called gurus have relatively few followers themselves.” Not
a lot of media coverage but a lot of social media backlash to self-proclaimed
gurus. Grade: B+.

oMedia relations: We said, “Social
media is no longer just for early-adopting B2B companies but media relations
continues to be important. By the end of the decade, both media relations and
social media will converge into a single integrated effort.” We stand by that. Grade: B.

We'll post the another set of grades tomorrow. In the meantime, you can also check out our 2014, starting here.